Food container unit



March 23, 1937. scuRLocK FOOD CONTAINER UNIT Filed July 11, 19 35 2Sheets-Sheet l I March 23, 1937. I H. scuRLoCK FOOD CONTAINER UNIT FiledJuly 11, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet? Patented Mar. 23, 1937 ,"UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE This invention relates to food container units of thatkind in which a plurality of containers, preferably made of glass, arearranged in a circle=on a rotary support, with a base for the. latter,and with provisions on the support to prevent the containers from beingaccidentally displaced therefrom, notwithstanding that. each containeris preferably. removable from the support without the necessity ofremoving any of the other containers of the group. i

, Generally stated, the object of the invention istoprovide a novel andimproved construction andiarrangement whereby a rotary supportingstructure is. provided, of metal or other suitable 15 materials, of suchshape and character that the containers may be arrangedin. two or moregroups, one above the other, with each group disposed .in a horizontalplane, and with themembers of each group disposed in a circle on its 2Down individual rotary support, whereby any group may be rotated ineither direction.

it is also an. object to provide certain details and features ofconstruction and combinations ten-ding to increase the generalefficiency and 25 the desirability of a food container unit having. aplurality of sub-units, of this particular character.

To the foregoing and other useful ends, the invention consists inmatters hereinafter set forth 30 and claimed and shown in theaccompanying drawings, in which- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a foodcontainer unit comprising a plurality of sub-units involving theprinciples of the invention.

35 Fig. 2 is a plan view of the structure shown in Fig. 1 of thedrawings, the lower portion thereof being a horizontal section on theline 2-2 in Fig. l of the drawings. Fig. 3 is an enlarged verticalsection, on a 40 larger scale, on line 3-3 in Fig. 2 of the drawings.

Fig. 4 is a horizontal section on line 4-4 in Fig. 3 of the drawings.

. As thus illustrated, the invention comprises a 45 lower base I,preferably made of sheet metal, and provided with a concentric ball race2 at the middle portion thereof, the outer edges of said base beingcircular and bent down to rest upon a table or other support. The centerpost 59 3 is connected by a screw bolt 4 with the center of said base I,so that this post and base are rigidly connected. The sheet metalsupport 5' is preferably of sheet metal, and has its middle portionprovided with a ball race 6 opposite the ball race 2, with theanti-friction balls I interposed between thetwo ball races thus formed.The base 5. turns about the screw 4 as a pivot or axis, and this base isprovided with peripheral notches 8, and with re-entrant portions 9, andwith pairs of. outwardly converging flanges In, the 5 members of eachpair being disposed at opposite sides of one of the wedge-shapedcontainers H, adapted to be disposed on said support. Thus, the innerends of a flange III of one pair, and a flange IU of another pair, areadjacent and are 10 spaced apart across the space provided by there-entrant portion 9,, the latter and the notches 8 being each four innumber, as shown, but it be ing understood that the numberwill vary inaccordance with the number of containers which it is desired to supporton the rotary turntable or, support 5', previously mentioned. With thisconstruction, any jar or container l I can be lifted above the flangesIII, by placinga finger on the bottom of the jar or container, where thelat- 2O ter is exposed by one of the notches 8, and thus any containercan be removed without disturbing any of the other containers. Radialbeads l2 on the upper surface of the support 5 may be employed to definethe divisions between the wedgeshaped containers II, as shown in dottedlines in Fig. 2 of the drawings, thereby defining the positions of thecontainers on the top of the rotary support. But it will be seen thateach pair of flanges I0 is capable of resisting not only outward ortangential displacement of its allotted container, but also any lateraldisplacement thereof. The support 5 rotates freely on the balls I, andthe latter are held in position in the ball races by the plate 13, or byany other suitable means.

Upon the top of the post 3', a base l4, similar to that previouslydescribed, and a rotary support I 5, also similar to that previouslydescribed, are held in place by a screw bolt i6, similar to the 40 bolt4 previously described, but the bottom bolt is upside down, while thebolt I6 is right side up. The base "is held stationary on the post 3, inany suitable way, and balls H are interposed between ball races on thebase l4 and the support [5, whereby the latter is free to rotate aboutthe vertical axis thus provided. The base l4 has peripheral notches,similar to the notches 8 already described, and also has flanges l8similar to the flanges I0 previously described, which flanges embracethe wedge-shaped containers IS, the latter-being similar to containersH, previously described. A plate 20 serves to keep the balls 1|! intheir races, in the well known manner.

The containers preferably have covers 2|, as shown more clearly in Fig.3 of the drawings.

Preferably, washers 22 and 23 are applied to the lower and upper ends ofthe post 3, on the screws 4 and IE, to insure against loosening of thescrew bolts 4 and I6, and so that the bases l and M will be held rigidwith the post 3, when the latter is coupled in place between thethreaded end portions of said screw, but permitting either rotarysupport ll or ,l5 to rotate in either direction independently of eachother. As shown in Fig. 4, the element 23 is flat sided, and the same istrue of the element 22, so that a wrench can be applied thereto totighten or loosen'them. It

will be understood that the upper base I5 may have radial ribs like theribs I2 previously described, to define the radial divisions between thecontainers IS, the latter bein shaped like the containers H, previouslydescribed.

Thus, with the construction shown and described, any container of thelower sub-unit, comprising the jars or containers I I, may be removedindependently of the others, and any. container of the upper sub-unitmay be similarly removed. The lower sub-unit can be rotated, in eitherdirection, independently of the upper sub-unit, and the latter may berotated in either direction, independently of the lower sub-unit,whereby either sub-unit may be placed in position to facilitate theremoval of a jar or container from the front side thereof, which meansthe side facing the person using or operating thestructure.

The upper base 14, of course, does not need to be of the same diameteras the lower base I, but in the manufacture of this structure, there areadvantages in having the two or more bases of the same size, as thatmeans that only one size of base needs to be made, instead of increasingthe manufacturing expense by having bases of diiferent sizes, requiringdies or other tools of different shapes or sizes It will also be seenthat the rotary supports may all be alike, and that the post 3 is thesame at each end, and that the screw bolts are threaded alike, to engageeither end of the post 3, whereby the cost of production is practicallyreduced to a minimum. Again, should it be desired to use the parts shownand described for theproduction of units having only a single level ofcontainers, with only one rotary support, it is obvious that the partsshown and described are sufficient for that purpose, inasmuch as thepost 3 can be left off, and the upper portion of the screw 4 can be cutoff and riveted over the top of the washer 22; or for a single set ofcontainers, the screw can be turned right side up, as shown in the upperportion of Fig. 3 of the drawings, and'the lower end portion can be cutoff and riveted over the bottom of the washer 23, if so desired. Thusthe same parts can be used for the manufacture of single sets, a foodunit comprising a single horizontal set of containers, or of multiplesets-of the kind shown and described, each multiple set constituting afood unit in its entirety. The unitary structure shown and describedmaybe called a double deck food unit, but it is obvious that the inventioncontemplates a plurality of sub-units or individually'rotatable sets ofcontainers, and is not limited to any particular number of horizontallevels, in which the sets of jars or containers are arranged. The pointis that-the jars or containers, and the plurality of levels, each setrotatable independently of the others, about a common vertical axis, areeach removable independently without disturbing any of the other jars orcontainers, which means without disturbing the positions of any of theother containers on their respective rotary supports.

Of course, it will be observed that certain features of the inventionare susceptible of use in a structure in which the two or more sub-unitsor container sets are not rotatable independently of each other, but aremounted to rotate in unison, so that when one set is turned'in onedirection, the other set or sets will rotate in the same direction. But,as shown and described, the two or more sets are each independently rtatable, so that any set may be rotated without rotating or disturbingany other set.

It will also be seen that the central vertical or axial post of thestructure is provided with similar upper and lower ends, so that theseends are interchangeable with each other in the struc-- ture, whichobviously tends to facilitate the assembling of the different parts.

While the structure shown and described is preferably provided withwedge-shaped jars or containers, as a matter of efiiciency in utilizingspace, it is obvious that the invention may be used in connection withjars or containers of any suitable or desired shape, and that the rotarysupports therefor may be suitably shaped or formed to adequately supportand hold the desired jars or containers.

In assembling the unit shown and described, it is obvious that the baseI and its allotted rotary support can be assembled, by inserting thescrew or bolt 4 through the element 22, so that the base and its rotarysupport are properly held between the head of the screw 4 and the saidelement 22, with the threaded end of the screw extending upwardly. Thebase l4 and the rotary support l5 can be assembled in the same way, byusing the element 33, thus leaving the threaded end portion of the screwextending downwardly. Then the post 3 can be screwed onto the threadedportion of the screw 4, and the threaded portion of the screw Hi canthen be screwed into the upper end of the post, and in this way the twobases are rigidly connected together, leaving their allotted rotarysupports to rotate freely on the anti-friction ball bearings.

As the base I4 is preferably a duplicate of the base I, and inasmuch asthe rotary support I5 is preferably a duplicate of the rotary support 5,it follows that the manufacture of food units of this kind issimplified, and that the cost of manufacture is reduced, inasmuch asonly one form of base is necessary, and only one form of rotary support.In addition, as shown, either sub-unit, with its allotted base androtary support, can be used separately and alone, as either base isadapted to. rest on a shelf or table or other support. As the two endsof the post 3 are the same, and are interchangeable, it follows that afurther simplification is obtained, as the same means can be employedfor drilling and threading both ends of the rod, and in assembling theparts the workers do not have to be particular which end of the post isuppermost.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. In a double rotary food container unit, the combination of a lowerstationary base adapted to rest upon a table or other object, a rotarysupport on said base, adapted to receive a lower group of containers, alower screw inserted upwardly through said base and support, forming theaxis of rotation of the latter, an upper stationary base spaced adistance above said support, a rotary support on said upper base,adapted to receive an upper group of containers, an upper screw inserteddownwardly through said upper support and its base, and a post screwedonto the threaded portions of said screws to rigidly and detachablycouple the upper base to the lower base, while permitting each supportto rotate independently of the other.

2. A structure as specified in claim 1, comprising retaining means onthe lower screw, be-

tween the top of the lower support and the lower end of said post, andretaining means on the upper screw, between the bottom of the uppersupport and the upper end of said post.

3. A structure as specified in claim 1, the upper base having a fiatbottom and thereby when detached from said post being adapted with itsallotted rotary support to rest on a table or other object, so that eachgroup can be used separately as a single unit if desired.

4. In a rotary food container unit, the combination of a base adapted torest on a shelf or table, a rotary support on said base, adapted to holda group of containers in a circle, a vertical post axially and rigidlybut detachably connected at its lower end with said-base, a duplicatebase rigidly and axially but detachably mounted on the upper end of saidpost, and a duplicate rotary support on said upper base, so that onlyone form of base and one form of rotary support are necessary in themanufacture of the unit, and whereby the containers on said upper baseare interchangeable with the containers on the lower base, with eachbase and its allotted rotary support forming a sub-unit adapted for usealone.

LEWIS H. SCURLOCK.

